That's What Friends Are For
by JonIsMySpiritAnimal
Summary: Annie has a crush on Jeff. Seeing him kissing Britta is a hard hit for her, and she tries to seek comfort from being alone - being disturbed by a friend though, brings her into realizing that there are better ways of dealing with her feelings. *one shot, mentions of one sided Annie/Jeff, hints of Annie/Abed, more on the side of friendship*


**A/N: First Community story! I'm still pretty new to the entire fandom, but hopefully this'll do. Just wanted to do a little something with my favorite couple, Annie and Abed, and well, this is what came out. Its more of a friendship thing though than romance what I was aiming for, but it'll do for the first story cause damn I'm proud of finally pulling this one off!  
Just let me know what you think and if it should stick as a one shot or become a multiparter which would eventually then evolve into a bigger love story between these two yay. Also please note that English is not my first language, so all grammar and spelling mistakes are mainly blamed to that. I proof read my things tho, but there might be some slips.  
**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! :)**

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The tears in her eyes were real.

Blushing at the thought of someone possibly seeing her like this, Annie closed the study room doors after her. The young brunette quickly brushed the salty drips off from underneath her sparkly blue eyes, trying to focus on getting her breath back in sensible order. The task was proven to be harder than she first thought though, as the memories came crashing down at the same second she saw the Halloween themed black and orange plastic cups on the table, making her squeal to herself quietly in a mixture of sadness and disgust.

Even though Annie Edison was a sensitive young lady, she definitely wasn't someone who liked crying. Obviously, it was allowed in some situation like at the ending of Titanic or after getting her heart broken by Rich or when someone had died… All the normal situations.

But when something like this happened, a guy she knew as one of her friends that gave the little stingy rainbow butterflies in her currently Red Riding Hood dress covered stomach was kissing another one of her friends, it wasn't allowed. She wasn't supposed to cry, Annie was supposed to be happy for the two people she thought in her mind had belonged together ever since the day one the study group was formed. Jeff and Britta might not always had seen from eye to eye with each other, but it was just like everything else building up the obvious tension between them.

Shaking the chills of the thought away from her, Annie finally proceeded deeper into the study room. Stopping by the end of the table, next to the seat where Jeff always used to sit during the Thursday meetings, her hand gently brushed over the back of the chair, her red painted lips starting to quiver. How she had never felt about anyone the same way she was doing now, it was all starting to bear to be too much for her.

After seeing Jeff and Britta kiss each other outside as, in their words, they were only going for a quick round of fresh air, she hadn't suspected them for taking the freshness out of each other's lungs as Annie had followed them shortly afterwards, telling Troy she was going to do the same. Staying out of sight and out of the way, it hadn't taken long for her to see enough of the two basically eating each other alive, before Annie had ran back inside, hiding herself inside the study room where she was now staring at Jeff's chair, alongside the decorated table filled with refreshments in all of their black and orange Halloween colored glory.

The punch looked like a promising choice in her eyes. Of course, even while being in a sad state Annie was aware that after all drinking wasn't a solution to her problems, even though at the same time she knew the punch the school was offering was probably nothing more than colored water with a hint of ice cubes made out of juice that were just randomly thrown into the mix. Sighing, the brunette reached for an orange plastic cup, filling it up with a two scoops of the red liquid floating around in the big plastic container, taking a hesitant sip from the cup right afterwards. Wincing, she hadn't prepared for such an odd combination of tastes – the way it oddly tasted like a handful of peppermint was thrown into a bowl filled with strawberry juice and let that just sunk it and mix together, it wasn't something Annie had liked. Nonetheless, right now it was better than nothing to take her mind of the visuals of Jeff and Britta having… The times of their lives.

The thought of regret was filling poor Annie's mind. She should have never saw the two of them, she should have just stayed by the side of Troy and Abed after Shirley had to excuse herself to answer her phone, most obviously Andre calling about the kids. If it just wouldn't have been too much for her to bear to see the boys acting like little kids with each other, bringing the saying 'boys will be boys' in her mind, maybe none of this would have not happened. Maybe if Annie wouldn't have felt herself so much of an outside next to her two best friends, maybe if she wouldn't have been so regretful and jealous of the kind of friendship she never had a change to get herself…

Biting her lower lip harder, feeling the stinging sensation of salty tears in the corner of her eyes, Annie quickly wiped her face clean with her free hand, before bringing the plastic cup to meet her lips again. The wince was there again as she took a sip of the ugly looking, little bit transparent red liquid, wondering why dean allowed something like this being served on the school grounds to begin with. Well, obviously Greendale wasn't the sort of extremely high quality college, but it didn't mean they were allowed to serve dirt tasting punch like this during a Halloween party.

This just wasn't right in her opinion. Sure, she hadn't been… Exactly open about her feelings towards Jeff recently, so he had most likely forgotten about her entirely but then. But that didn't make it hurt any less; in fact, it made it hurt double times more than it had done before. Thinking about it now and knowing that she was nothing more than probably thin air to Jeff just like she had been to Troy all those years ago, made Annie's heart sunk.

"But," she tried to reason with herself, still leaning against Jeff's chair and slightly spinning the plastic cup in her hand, watching the remainings of the liquid do little circles around the edges of the bottom of the cup, "I'm his friend, right?" Letting out a little soft chuckle like trying to convince herself that what she was telling to herself was indeed the one and only, utter truth.

"…I am his friend," Annie sighed to herself, her free hand's index finger running little circles around the edges of the plastic cup as the reality was sinking in on her finally. Nothing more… Than a friend.

Lowering the cup from her hands back to the edge of the table, Annie brushes her hair back with both hands, staring at the cup that she had been holding in her hands just a second ago. It was true. She was nothing more to Jeff than a friend. He had it even said it himself, he didn't find her hot, barely even attractive – she was more of a little sister to him than a plausible girlfriend, unlike Britta seemed to be. Especially after the whole 'sucking each others faces off' episode that they had had going on outside just now.

"Oh gosh what is my life," she mumbled to herself, hands quickly covering her face as Annie couldn't hold back the tears anymore. The miserable feeling taking her over entirely, everything came crashing down on her – the notice of Jeff not seeing her anything more than just a friend, and even that just barely, she didn't really come along with anyone else than Shirley in the group and even with her it was more of a looking up to a motherly figure case to her and with the guys and Pierce…

Sniffling loudly into her hands, Annie carefully peeked from between her hands as the tears were smudging her field of vision. Catching up a shadow moving outside the study room, apparently someone wandering around the halls looking for either a bathroom or someone to spend time with, all Annie was sure about that she didn't want to be seen in the current state she was in. Definitely not. It would do nothing but harm her reputation with just anyone even more than her 'goody two shoes girly school girl' attitude already did.

Before she could register what she was doing though, Annie was on her knees on the floor and carefully crawled under the table, the tablecloth hanging low enough to hid herself underneath the big study table. Sitting there she carefully leaned one hand against the floor, brushing her face with the other one to wipe off the tears.

"_Great job, Annie,"_ she thought to herself as she heard to study room door opening, hearing soft footsteps against the floor, getting closer to the set up table. _"If something, this will prove your maturity; crawling underneath the table like a hurt child to hide that you are crying. Very mature."_

Setting her dress in a proper manner to cover her thighs, Annie watched the shadow casting over the table and on the floor. The tablecloth left a little visible crack between the floor and itself so she was able to see a clear pair of shoes walking around the room. Hearing someone shifting the plastic cups on the table, her first thought was immediately at thinking how the person must have thought her as someone really messy, to leave behind at least a half cup of punch just laying around. Sighing quietly at the thought, Annie shook her head, blinking away a set of tears coming into her eyes – she was at it again, making ridiculous observations about her own self just to make herself feel upset about more than was necessary at this point.

One of her sniffles must have been too loud though, as the footsteps were already going through the room, in an obvious thought of leaving, but then they stopped by the door. Annie froze on her place as she heard the door closing slowly, but the footsteps returned inside the room, stopping by the table again. Hoping in her mind that whoever was bothering her peace and quiet just wanted something more from the set up table.

Those dreams were crushed easily though as she heard someone kneeling next to the table, obviously locating the source of the sound way too easily, and she held her breath for a brief second as she watched a hand grabbing the edge of the tablecloth, pulling it up and revealing a familiar looking face to her.

"Annie?"

"…Abed?" Annie's voice cracked a tad bit more than she would have wanted it to, knowing that another set of tears and ugly crying wasn't really far away at this point. Her Palestinian-Polish-American friend giving the young brunette a curious look, clearly trying to understand the odd situation himself as well. Finding his friend sitting all by herself under a table in the study room, clearly like she was hiding from something, or someone, wasn't something that he could be understanding so easily.

"What are you doing here?"

Annie sighed quietly, wiping her tears off quickly, even though she was more than sure that Abed had already seen them. She shrugged a little, her eyes drifting away from his stare that was slowly but surely starting to make her feel even more embarrassed and uncomfortable about herself, sitting underneath eh table all alone dressed up like a child in a costume of the Little Red Riding Hood. Well, Abed wasn't much better himself in the Indiana Jones costume, but it was still more mature than her choice and it just reminded her even more about the current state and situation she had driven herself into.

"It's just a silly thing, nothing to worry about." She tried to force out a genuine looking smile, like Abed wouldn't be able to tell the difference between real and faked happiness. All years of watching television and movies had made him surprisingly observing person.

"It's nothing?" Abed's voice was more questioning than stating, but Annie nodded carefully nonetheless – he didn't want to pull more people into this mess now, it was enough that she was a human wrecking ball in her current emotional state and that she was already having murderous intensions towards Britta, even though she knew she couldn't stand a chance against her in a war about Jeff.

"All is cool," she confirmed with a bit bigger smile this time, getting a small one back from her friend. "Cool," Abed replied with a tiny nod, letting the tablecloth fall back on it's place as he got up, preparing for leaving the room for real this time. "Cool cool cool."

Watching the little shadows indicate Abed's movements in the room, Annie took a deep breath before pushing her head from underneath the table, looking at her friend now standing on the partially opened doorway, giving him a tiny apologizing smile as he stopped to look at her, questions written all over his narrow face.

"I'm sorry Abed," Annie sighed quietly, trying to keep the tiny smile on her lips as they slowly started to quiver again, "I lied. Everything is not cool."

The young man stepped back inside the study room, letting the door close after him. His head slightly cocking to the side, the punch cup he was holding in his hand met up with his lips as he took a curious sip from it, being left with his thoughts of the taste while his eyes observed the brunette who pulled her tiny figure back underneath the table.

"When you say everything is 'not cool', you mean –"

"Everything is horrible, Abed. I'm a screw up." Her tiny voice called from underneath the table as Abed took another sip from his drink. He made his way to the table with few long steps, stopping on his tracks for another sip, clearly taking a better liking to the drink than Annie had. Lowering his cup down, Abed took another cup from the edge of the table, filling it up with the ugly red colored punch as well. Being happy with his actions, he kneeled down next to the table, pushing the cup underneath the table, where the quietly sniffling Annie was more than happy to accept it into her own hands.

Picking up his own cup again from the table, Abed carefully lifted up the tablecloth, slipping himself underneath the table to accompany the fellow study group member. Annie held the plastic cup with both hands, taking small sips of the terrible tasting liquid in between the small hiccups that she tried to suffocate with her drinking.

"So what's up?" Abed's question was so sincere that it almost bought another set of tears into Annie's eyes. The genuinely interested look on his face was something she rarely saw, usually Abed was only all about his adventures with Troy or referencing pop culture that she had barely even heard of – and his reaction to real world things was anything but honest interest.

But here he was sitting, asking her what was going on and looking like he really cared. Something she, in all honesty, hadn't seen him doing very many times before.

Swallowing the liquid in her mouth along with the lump in her throat, Annie stared at the bottom of the cup through the red liquid before slowly shrugging her shoulders. "I don't think Jeff likes me."

"He likes you," Abed immediately cut in, in his usual fast paced manner, "We all like you. You are part of the family."

"I know he… Likes me," Annie corrected him, still not being really comfortable looking Abed straight into the eyes as she looked more fascinated by the bottom of her plastic cup. "As a friend. But that's the problem."

"You are being overshadowed by Britta in the battle for his heart and thus Jeff has, at least in your eyes, brutally friend zoned you."

Annie side eyed Abed, putting on a little pout. "Well it sounds so harsh when you say it like that."

"And you don't like the current situation and would like to change the pecking order of this relationship."

The brunette continued with her pouting. Was it such a clever idea to talk about this whole thing with Abed after all? Sure, he was clearly on the map with what was going on and what she was feeling down about, but the way he dealt with the same things she found extremely hard to think and especially talk about, was making her feel even more uncomfortable about everything than before she had been caught in the study room by Abed.

"Well, not really. I mean, of course he can like whoever he wants, I'm not the boss of Jeff or anything, it's just… It would be nice to get at least some recognition from him, you know? Like in the same way you would like to get recognition from your father about your films, something that is really important to you."

Abed clearly stopped to think through Annie's words, trying to wrap his mind around the thought of how their situations could be similar in any sense.

"And along with that, I would like to have a… Friendship with Britta. Of course, we already are friends," she quickly added as Abed gave her a questioning raise of his brow, "But something like what you and Troy have. I've never had a friendship like that with anyone."

"What me and Troy have is special." Annie rolled her eyes, immediately regretting her actions as she didn't mean the action to look as hurtful as it probably had been. "Every friendship is one of a kind, you can have a similar to someone else's, but in the end every friendship has distinguishing differences that makes them unique in their own ways."

"If," she started carefully, not sure if she was really supposed to go along with her question at the moment, "I said that I was jealous of the friendship that you and Troy have –"

"It wouldn't change anything." Annie nodded carefully, watching Abed stop to actually think the answer more carefully. "Well, maybe little things. At least we would be more aware what we would do around you and how you would feel when we do all the awesome stuff together while you have no one to share similar acts together with."

"That's how I feel about Jeff and Britta's relationship," she popped out, before hiding herself and her big mouth behind the edge of the plastic cup again. Abed eyed her for a moment, shrugging it off quickly enough. "I know how you feel. I always think about that when I find girls showing their affection with Troy."

"Have you been jealous over Troy?"

"Not really," Abed answered, spinning the cup in his head over his crossed legs, shrugging barely visibly. "I'm just thinking how it would affect everything on this timeline if he left along with the girl and broke the unspoken tie between the two of us."

"You would be lonely if he left?"

"Devastated," he admitted, looking back to Annie under his brows. "But that doesn't happen. We are going to stick together forever. He is the Reggie to my Inspector, after all."

Annie nodded, letting out a tiny but still genuine smile. Abed answered back with one of his own, his understanding reaching the level of knowing that he had done something right with this tiny pep talk with the young brunette. "Just like we are going to be friends and a family as the study group."

Abed nodded in turn, making the smile on Annie's lips grow a little bit bigger again. "You know Abed, it's so nice to be able to talk about this stuff to someone. Someone who I feel like really understands."

Looking down into the plastic cup in her hand, the smile grew little by little on her face. "I might be ready to go back to the cafeteria now."

"Oh good," Abed answered with a tiny smile, "They might have the dance competition already started, we should go root for Troy."

Nodding, Annie followed Abed's lead as the two crawled back out from under the table, leaving a pair of empty orange plastic cups behind. Grabbing his hand, Annie was helped up by her friend, the two sharing a genuine smile before Annie pulled him into a quick hug.

"Thank you for everything," she whispered as she snuggled against his chest, Abed's arms giving her tiny figure a tight squeeze.

"Anything for a friend," he stated back at her, as Annie pulled away from the hug. Abed offered her his hand, the brunette taking it into hers with a smile, the duo exiting through the study room doors together.


End file.
